New sign recalls Tanbark City

WELLSVILLE — Wellsville’s first claim to nationwide fame wasn’t an oil refinery fire or a baseball celebrity. It was for the tanning of hides to make the soul leather on which American’s walked.

Late Thursday afternoon, on South Main Street, Wellsville Historian Mary Rhodes and Lions Club representatives Jim Raptis and Mark Finn gathered to unveil the latest in a number of historical markers the club has placed about the village. Over the last few years, the signs have been erected on the lawn of Jones Memorial Hospital, at the David A. Howe Public Library, on North Main Street, at the corner of Fassett and Main streets and near Loder Street. Each sign marks the site of an historical event or relates to historical figures — mentors David A. Howe, William and Gertrude Jones, Gardner Wells, the site of the first village meeting and the site of the Erie Railroad.

According to Raptis, who spearheads the committee which decides on where the markers will go, the signs are a way of commemorating the past and letting current and future visitors learn about Wellsville.

He said, “They give the people of the community an understanding of our history and where they came from.”

While this is the sixth sign, Raptis says it isn’t the last.

“I have two other signs in mind, but I’m not prepared to say what they are. There’s research to be done by this lady” he said, motioning to Rhodes, “and it has to go through the committee approval process.”

The projects are approved by the Lions Club’s Civic Improvements Committee. The club purchases the signs at a cost of $1,500 and sees to putting them in the ground.

“The town and village crews have been very helpful to us, especially on this project. Because of its nearness to gas lines, it had to be dug by hand and the village crew did that for us,” Finn said.

Noting the tannery history of the village is important, said Rhodes.

“Tanneries were a very big economically in the development of the village. Before oil, there were tanneries all over the village and town. It was very big business and employed many people and brought money to the farmers who leased their land for the Hemlock bark."

“This,” she said, gesturing around the area, “is where the tanneries were the most abundant."

The new sign commemorates Wellsville as Tanbark City and notes that the tannery business brought prosperity to the village into the 20th century.

According to Minard’s “History of Allegany County and Its People” the first tannery was built by first settler Nathanial Dike in Elm Valley in 1805.

Later historians report that by mid-century, in the southern section of the village of Wellsville, between what is now Woodlawn Cemetery and the area around Dike’s Creek, several tanneries had been constructed. The first was by Charles Hatch, followed by the Bush and Howard Tannery, Hills and Baldwin tanneries.

In her history of the Town of Wellsville, Martha Howe wrote, “The tanneries were the next industries, after saw mills and grist mills, to bring prosperity to Wellsville, giving it the title of Tanbark City.”

In the history, she explained, “At the tanneries, raw hides were soaked in vats of liquid extracted from the peeled bark of hemlock trees …. hundreds of wagons carried loads of hemlock bark into the village each day. At the tanneries the bark was stacked into piles the size and the shape of buildings” — Tanbark City.

The Wellsville Illustrated in 1898 reported, “The United States Leather Company on South Main Street and Dyke Street (in Wellsville) is the largest tanning plant in the state and one of the largest in world.”

At the time, it employed 250 men and consumed 27,000 pounds of hemlock bark annually. Hides were imported from as far away as South America to be tanned in Wellsville.

“From what I understand, the Hemlock trees here produced a chemical that turned leather into a very desirable color,” Rhodes noted.

Although tanneries still exist today, the industry in Wellsville declined after the turn of the 20th century, giving way to the oil parts and oil refining businesses and environmental concerns. However, along with the new sign the residual impact of the tannery business is still evident with only second and third growth timber on the hillsides ringing the village and, as the group noted, the difficulty of building new structures in areas where deteriorating tan bark is buried.

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